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Hey folks! I've been planning on creating my own board game for some time now, just for me and my friends. I'm the Marshall, from How I Met Your Mother, of my group and it's about time i embrace the roll completely.
Our favourite games are things like Settlers of Catan, Monopoly, Pokemon Monopoly and Risk. We also enjoy stuff like Pazazz and Balderdash but normally just for a change of pace or because we are quite drunk.
Rules designing is the real problem as it's not something i've tackled before. I'm happy with the graphics and lore side of things, the plan is to paint the 'board' onto a large coffee table then get it sealed and covered with plexiglass or glass.
Now i've decided it's time to make a proper start on the designing but i think i need some beginners advice before i get stuck in. Anyone got any tips, suggestions or questions?
Asking yourself "What sort of game are you wanting to make?" is usually a good starting point.
For instance with Brushfire we knew we wanted to make a miniatures game, and then we though something like Warcraft 3 would be cool, but we didn't want yet another Humans/Orcs/Elves game.
Here's what i have in mind:
I'm leaning towards a Risk styled game so a map would be the 'board.'
I don't want to dramatically overcomplicate things but i can up the complexity from mainstream style games because i am looking at a small target audience who will embrace it.
I want to introduce some kind of miniatures element to push my friends towards tabletop wargaming.
I have an affinity with Monopoly style play so i would like to include some form of currency or resources.
I've got some lore which i've been working on for a long time in dribs and drabs so i have that to draw from and build upon
What i'm thinking at the moment is Risettopoly. How does that sound?
I'd heard someone talk about Diplomacy but i'd never looked into it. Funnily enough they brought it up because they said we had turned our games of Risk into it, looking at that wiki page we kind of had. We added our own negotiation phase to Risk although we didn't call it that.
The question there is, should i make it part of the game or let it happen naturally like it does when we play Monopoly and Risk?
I find it difficult with Catan but i tend to try and sneak up and steal the win at the end so it's hard to positively interact with people. We don't play Munchkin yet but it certainly nudges you towards helping each other out and teaming up on people.
I guess i should just add some sort of disclaimer about how far you can go with negotiation.
So where do you start when you are writing rules for something? What is the first thing you need to do? I'm rather confused about how to take my first steps.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/06/03 01:02:52
Whenever I set down to write a game, I need to start with a strong (usual visual) concept. The rules writing process for me is usually about trying to capture that concept as a quantifiable action.
That's sound advice. I kind of overlooked why people should play because i had a captive audience but it's important that they enjoy it and want to come back so i'll put some thought into that. I'll figure out what they want from the experience and build it around that.
Also, i couldn't a sleep at all last night once the ideas started flowing but i've made huge progress already. I've adapted the lore i've already written to be more palatable to my friends which has resulted in two new, core 'races' which i've very, very pleased with. I also designed some 'random encounter' style cards to be pulled which really build the lore and atmosphere of the game.
I came up with a load of ideas for game mechanics as well. Some of them took elements from risk and tabletop wargaming and others were completely of my own devise. I need to get them written down and start to tie them together now.
One of the things i need to do next is chat to someone about copyrighting and all that goes along with it, if you don't mind i'll be firing a pm your way at some point Cyp. Not that i'm being overconfident in my ideas but i always like to be prepared for something to do better than expected even if i don't think it will.
As much as i hate these nights where i can't sleep it's unbelievable how much i can get done in my head!
One thing to keep in mind is UK Copyrighting is different from US copyrighting. It might be best to contact someone on your side of the pond about that..
Hey, my friend and I created our own risk game (samurai themed). It was alot of fun to make. We made a to do list of simple things:
-How do I win the game?
-What uniqueness can we provide the players?
-How big will the board be?
-How complicated do we wanna make this?
We met every once and a while when we could to work details like the "heroes" we wanted, incorporating different types of dice. the hardest part was balancing and coming up with original card ideas. When we had everything set we followed the rulebook for classic risk and set up ours in a similar format. Then we got some test models to play with from a small, local company and had some fun with it. We are excited to keep working on it this summer if we have time.
"In space, nobody can hear you scream unless it's a battle cry for the Emperor!"
That sounds really cool man. So did you change the combat mechanics and stuff or stick to the official Risk rules?
Sadly i haven't had time to work on any more because... well... i've been extremely drunk. Combat mechanics is the next thing though and i have some pretty strong ideas for it. I'm leaning towards simplified tabletop wargaming rules which could be really fun. This is definitely going to be a board game for geeks only.
Well we kept the principles the same but added many different levels. For example we wanted to see more pieces on the table so we made the common 1 army peices militia which you could get a crap ton of each turn but they only provide d4 on attack and defence. Then we created specialized troops that could be trained and purchased.Its very complex but thats how we wanted it
"In space, nobody can hear you scream unless it's a battle cry for the Emperor!"
That sounds sweet man. I'm going for some similar content with my stuff. I'm having 'warbands' instead of battalions and there will be a deck of 'upgrade cards' which can be used to enhance them. The warbands will have a wounds characteristic and be able to regen if they are damaged and beside a town. Only one warband will be able to regen per turn per town.
Play Kasl, Small World, Axis & Allies, Shogun (80s version), and some of the Risk variants, just to try out some established stuff that's "like Risk but different".
Yeh good shout. I've been reading up on a couple of them and i'll be buying them eventually to add to the current collection. Small World is of particular interest because it's such an cool game.
Casey's Law wrote:Rules designing is the real problem as it's not something i've tackled before.
You are on the wrong site then. Most people here wouldnt know good or even decent let alone competent game design if it rammed its rulebook down their throat.
This is the site of plebes who think 40K is the end all be all of game design. (Dont get your panties in a wad folks, I know not all of you lack good taste to think that, but this is a 40K centric site afterall)
If you want real advice with serious and honest feedback on game design, you need to go to Board Game Geek. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/
That's a good idea and it's something i was planning to do at a later stage anyway.
For now this is a good place to store my thoughts and to get feedback from games designers and friends like Emily.
What i will say is i don't associate myself with the 'plebes' you mentioned. Everyone i engage with often on Dakka is an intelligent individual and worth listening to.
I'm really going to second heading over to Boardgamegeek.... It really is the end all be all when it comes to board games.
Two other little bits of advice for now.
First, with the four games you list as being your favorites "Settlers of Catan, Monopoly, Pokemon Monopoly and Risk". I'm kind of leed to belive that you haven't really experianced what many people would consider true Board Gaming. I highly recommend that you take the time to experiance more of the hobby and atleast play one game from each of the major boardgame mechanics.
Second, its important to remember that this is a board game and not a minatures game. Theme is more important then fluff or lore. I should be able to figure out the theme of a boardgame without having to read anything other then the base rules. Use Risk as an example. Once you've played Risk you know that the theme of the game is world domination, you didn't have to read a story in a rulebook to find this out. Instead the theme was evident in the way the game played out.
In my opinion the best way start developing a game is to decided on a theme then figure out which game mechanics work out best for that perticular theme.
That's cool, I'll head over to boardgamegeek soon then if it's general consensus. It'll have to wait a little while because real life is really busy right now. I barely get any time to spend on Dania.
You're right about not having many board games under my belt. I've never really been exposed to much, we haves played a lot of the few games I own but I really need some more. I have a long list of what I want but I don't currently have the cash to invest. It's something I'll have to remedy as this project moves forward.
Theme is interesting and that's a good example. I know what most of the games I play are all about without ever reading anything more than the rules and looking at the visuals. That's certainly something I hadn't considered from that angle.
I think I know what my theme is but it feels a bit lame so I could possibly use a new one. I'll run it by you although I haven't finalised on a lot of names so I'll miss them out. Here is the sort of introductory paragraph:
The land is in turmoil and you are a small time warlord out for you slice of power. You'll use any means necessary to get it, but you're not the only one.
Build an empire and crush your opposition.
I guess the question is how do I get that across most simply. Or will the riskesque map make it clear what the point is?
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2012/06/14 01:47:28
Casey's Law wrote:What i will say is i don't associate myself with the 'plebes' you mentioned. Everyone i engage with often on Dakka is an intelligent individual and worth listening to.
Yeah, there is a rather large and distinct difference between being intelligent and worth listening to, and being intelligent worth listening to and knowing what the hell you are talking about when it comes to game design.
There is no insult there. Its just using the right tool for the job and Dakka is the butter knife used to pound a nail into the wall, as it were.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/06/15 10:48:56
Fair point but I will say, there are people around here like Cyp who actually have created their own successful games. These are people worth listening to.
Also, because i'm a complete novice in the field, it does help to get a little feedback and information before I go and talk to the guys who live and breath it.
As I say though, I see you're point but Dakka has it's values in this situation.
Casey's Law wrote:Fair point but I will say, there are people around here like Cyp who actually have created their own successful games. These are people worth listening to.
To be fair... One mild success, one yet to be determined, one flop, 2 canceled before they got very far, one we can't talk about, and several that are in progress with no idea how they will turn out.
If you throw enough knives, eventually you'll hit a cat.
